{"id":398,"date":"2017-02-23T07:05:29","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T07:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/?p=398"},"modified":"2017-03-10T11:18:38","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T11:18:38","slug":"closing-out-hcmc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/23\/closing-out-hcmc\/","title":{"rendered":"Closing out HCMC"},"content":{"rendered":"

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We had a relaxing final few days in Saigon.  We wondered out and tried some more “authentic” Vietnamese food.  One we went to try was a sort of a crispy pancake type thing filled with sprouts and pork and shrimps.  Because it was so highly rated and evidently featured on food tours, we went to Banh Xeo 46A to test this new food out.  I can safely say that it might have been the only food we ate in HCMC that we didn’t like.  The place was interesting and the open air kitchen was impressive to watch, but I’d skip on the food.<\/p>\n

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\nSpeaking of eating, we found a delicious Mexican food place next to our place called Rico Taco.  It was so good, we went twice in one day and spent the last few days lamenting that we hadn’t gone earlier. Sometimes you just need a taste of home.<\/p>\n

Keali insisted on hitting up the Saigon Zoo.  As one of the oldest zoos in the world, I was a bit curious to see what it looked like.  You can see her review in Keali’s Zoo Reviews tab (hopefully in the next day or two) on the homepage.  Suffice it to say that I wish we had saved the $6USD we spent to enter. But these ball things were fun and clearly the highlight of the zoo.<\/p>\n

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\nSince we were so focused on feeding those last few days, there are a couple that must be mentioned.  First, we had a crazily unique experience at a restaurant called Noir.  It is a fancy restaurant in terms of food served (and price), but they don’t serve food in the regular way.  We sat in a completey pitch black room and tried to figure out what we were eating for each course, all of which was amazing.  From duck to Kobe beef to several other “top shelf” foods, we ate well.  And while the food was amazing (and intriguing since you had to figure out what it was), perhaps the best part of the restaurant was that all the servers were completely blind.  What an incredible way to experience a tiny part of how many people who can’t see live. (I took several photos of the dinner but the lighting was bad. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

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\nAnd the final eating in Saigon consisted of Vietnamese barbecue.  The kids loved cooking at the table, and I loved getting some beef.  Most of the food in HCMC is veggies, seafood, and pork.  Beef is a much more novelty item so we found we didn’t eat much of it, that is, until we went to 3T Grill.<\/p>\n

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\nOur last day we decided to do some good ole fashioned bowling.  I can honestly say that none of us expected to be bowling in Vietnam, but we sure had a good time doing it.  The kids loved it, and it served as the perfect afternoon time filler prior to boarding the night train.<\/p>\n

Video highlights:<\/p>\n